I’m sorry
Please forgive me
Thank you for this opportunity to heal
I love you
I recently learned about this healing practice from an intuitive friend who I deem a true seeker of spiritual enlightenment. Hoʻoponopono or “ho’o” meaning “cause” in Hawaiian, while “ponopono” means “perfection” is understood to mean “correct a mistake” or “make it right”. The mantra seeks to guide the practitioner through steps of repentance, forgiveness, love, and gratitude.
I googled https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoʻoponopono in practice and came across this understanding and wanted to share it with you.
The traditional version of ho’oponopono consists of four main phrases:
1. I’m sorry
2. Please forgive me
3. I love you
4. I am grateful.
Traditional Hoʻoponopono is a forgiveness practice performed by Indigenous Hawaiian healers, often within the extended family by a family member. It is also performed on islands throughout the South Pacific, including Samoa, Tahiti, and New Zealand. There is also a New Age practice that goes by the same name. Hoʻoponopono is believed to correct, or restore and maintain good relationships among family members and with their gods or God by getting to the causes and sources of trouble. Usually, the most senior member of the family conducts it. He or she gathers the family together. If the family is unable to work through a problem, they turn to a respected outsider.
The process begins with prayer. A statement of the problem is made, and the transgression discussed. Family members are expected to work problems through and cooperate, not “hold fast to the fault” to facilitate familial healing. One or more periods of silence may be taken for reflection on the entanglement of emotions and injuries. Everyone’s feelings are acknowledged. Then confession, repentance and forgiveness take place. Everyone releases (kala) each other, by letting go. They cut off the past (ʻoki), and together they close the event with a ceremonial feast, called pani, which often includes eating limu kala or seaweed symbolic of the release.
In the 1970’s Mormah Simeona, regarded as a healing priest or kahuna, applied the traditional hoʻoponopono of family mutual forgiveness to the social realities of modern day Hawaii. She understood the practice could be used as a psycho-spiritual self-help rather than group process. Her version was influenced by her Christian (Protestant and Catholic) education and her philosophical studies about India, China, and Edgar Cayce.
Her practice emphasized prayer, confession, repentance, and mutual restitution and forgiveness but her focus was on reincarnation and karma as the true cause of trauma in one’s life. Simeona believed life’s problems were the effects of negative karma saying that “you have to experience by yourself that which you have done to others.” She stressed that each of us is the creator of our own lives circumstances and any wrongdoing is memorized within oneself and mirrored in every entity and object which was present when the cause happened. She believed in the Law of Cause and Effect which predominates in all of life and lifetimes and the purpose of practicing her version of ohoponopona is “to release unhappy, negative experiences in past reincarnations and heal trauma.
The practice does not require much teaching but can purify one’s body by getting rid of bad memories or feelings that hold the mind in a negative cycle. The term became well known from an experience lived by a therapist and teacher, Ihaleakala Hew Len, a student of Semeona’s who managed to cure an entire pavilion of mentally ill criminals in a Hawaiian jail without even talking or interacting with any of them. He built on her teachings of karma and by analyzing each patient’s records, the therapist applied the ho’oponopono keywords to them and the repetition of the technique changed his mood. Consequently, the mental activity of the detainees also changed and surprisingly he was able to heal the prisoners as he was healing himself.
By practicing this technique, we must assume that everything we know as “reality” is experienced individually by our mind. What you feel, hear, see and even the things or people you know are influenced by your inner self and thoughts. This means everything around you involves your participation, as you are responsible for what you think and feel. We can be our own champions or our worst enemies? This is because each thought can activate a mechanism that recreates an (albeit illusory) world of problems or successes.
The main purpose of ho’oponopono is to seek the cure of our problems through forgiveness. Not necessarily the forgiveness of others, but of oneself. Understanding what happens to you does not matter, but what you do with what happened, is what really matters. If your mind and thoughts have caused you problems, they are also able to solve them.
Simply repeating these words I’m sorry, please forgive me,
Thank you for this opportunity to heal, and I love you can trigger the release of blockages, negative memories, and traumas so that you can take more control over your own body and life. ho’oponopono is a problem-solving process that must happen entirely within you.
The benefits of regular ho’oponopono practice like religious prayer are numerous, and they are found in all fields of life. The main ones are Regeneration of cellular memories.
This is the experience of a type of “deja vous” or the feeling of reliving a traumatic situation several times, like watching a movie playing in your head? It is believed that all our pains, worries and fears are generated and stored in our cellular memory. Practicing Ho’oponopono regularly helps in cleansing or neutralizing memories of suffering and uncomfortable sensations.
Another benefit is as the protagonist of your life itself. The idea of responsibility and obligation to answer for one’s actions may seem very rigid, but over time, you may be surprised at how independent and proactive you are. By abandoning the sense of powerlessness linked to the idea that suffering is caused only by external and uncontrollable factors, it is possible to transform your beliefs and not have a victim stance, increasing the sense of personal power and opening the door to healing.
Healing the mind is crucial at this time in history. We must seek and practice holistic forms of group healing to set our world on a more inclusive and loving trajectory so our children can inherit a world filled with peace and forgiveness for past transgressions.
